1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an image processing system in which an image processing apparatus, a client, and a server for a display processing service are connected to a network, and to an image processing method, an image processing apparatus, a program for implementing the method, and a storage medium storing the program.
2. Description of the Related Art
In a network system in which an image processing apparatus which is provided with a web server function and a host computer are connected together, and in which the HTTP (HyperText Transfer Protocol) is used as a protocol between the image processing apparatus and the host computer, there has been used a known method in which information on the status of the image processing apparatus, information on its configuration, information on the status of a job which has been submitted to the image processing apparatus, background information, and other information are transmitted as HTML (HyperText Markup Language)documents from the image processing apparatus, so that the HTML documents can be read or viewed on the host computer using a web browser.
A web browser is a program which interprets HTML documents which are transmitted according to the HTTP, and performs display thereof, and is implemented on many host computers of various different types. Therefore, the web browser can easily implement a system, without any dependence on the type of the host computer. Further, the HTTP is a one-to-many multi client protocol, and it provides a user interface with which a plurality of users can interact with an apparatus at the same time.
For an image processing apparatus of the type described above, there is a demand to customize a user interface to be displayed on a client computer according to a user's preference or the intended application.
Furthermore, as a method for customizing a user interface to be displayed on a client computer, a method has been proposed, which includes storing a portion of image data as image files on a hard disk of the client computer in advance, and writing link data for linking to these image files stored on the client computer in a HTML document (for example, refer to Japanese Laid-Open Patent Publication (Kokai) No. 2003-44375).
However, in an image processing apparatus of the type described above, data which are sent to the web browser (including HTML files and image files) are stored in advance on a storage unit within the image processing apparatus. There also exist many systems which dynamically generate data to be transmitted using technology such as CGI (Common Gateway Interface) or Servlet. These systems employ essentially the same method as described above in which data for display are generated from data which are stored in advance on a storage unit within an image processing apparatus and transmitted. Therefore, with the image processing apparatuses of these systems, to customize a user interface to be displayed on a client computer, it is necessary to change the data stored on the storage unit within the image processing apparatus, and the user interface customization is thus difficult to perform with ease.
Furthermore, according to the method described in Japanese Laid-Open Patent Publication (Kokai) No. 2003-44375, it is possible to customize the user interface to be displayed for each user. However, it is necessary to store the files such as the image data on the hard disks of all the client computers in advance, which involves a very great deal of work in the storing operation. Still further, the data that can be customized are limited to data such as image data, and therefore it is difficult to fully meet customization requirements from users.